Editing Hindus (section)

== Etymology ==
{{Further|Hinduism}}
The word ''Hindu'' is an [[Endonym and exonym|exonym]].<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=L2sEL7Kj6lcC |title= Nietzsche, Power and Politics: Rethinking Nietzsche's Legacy for Political Thought |author= Herman Siemens, Vasti Roodt |publisher= Walter de Gruyter |year= 2009 |page= 546 |isbn= 978-3-11-021733-9 |access-date= 4 October 2020 |archive-date= 31 March 2024 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240331131328/https://books.google.com/books?id=L2sEL7Kj6lcC |url-status= live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=NRavAwAAQBAJ |title= The Anthropology of Eastern Religions: Ideas, Organizations, and Constituencies |author= Murray J. Leaf |authorlink= Murray Leaf |publisher= Lexington Books |year= 2014 |page= 36 |isbn= 978-0-7391-9241-2 |access-date= 4 October 2020 |archive-date= 31 March 2024 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240331131350/https://books.google.com/books?id=NRavAwAAQBAJ |url-status= live }}</ref> This word ''Hindu'' is derived from the [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan]]{{sfn|Flood|2008|p=3}} and [[Sanskrit]]{{sfn|Flood|2008|p=3}}{{sfn|Flood|1996|p=6}} word ''Sindhu'', which means "a large body of water", covering "river, ocean".<ref name="TakacsCline2015">{{citation |last1=Takacs |first1=Sarolta Anna |last2=Cline |first2=Eric H. |title=The Ancient World |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SPcvCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA377 |date=17 July 2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-45839-5 |pages=377–}}</ref>{{efn|{{harvtxt|Flood|2008|p=3}}: The Indo-Aryan word ''Sindhu'' means "river", "ocean".}} It was used as the name of the [[Indus River]] and also referred to its tributaries. The actual term '{{not a typo|hindu}}' first occurs, states Gavin Flood, as "a [[Persian language|Persian]] geographical term for the people who lived beyond the river Indus (Sanskrit: ''Sindhu'')",{{sfn|Flood|1996|p=6}} more specifically in the 5th-century BCE, [[DNa inscription|DNa inscription of Darius I]].{{sfn|Sharmaa|2002|p=2|ps= " An inscription of
Darius I which is “considered to have been carved between c. 518 and 515 BC, adds Hidu [Hindu] to the list of subject countries” (Raychaud- huri 1996:584). Similarly, clay tablets from Persepolis, in Elamite, “datable to different years from the thirteenth to the twenty-eighth reg- nal year of Darius” mention Hi-in-tu (India) (ib. 585). These examples, establishing the primacy of the territorial meaning, are confirmed by Herodotus (Historiae III, 91, 94, 98–102) in his employment of the word as 'Indoi' in Greek, which, “lacking an alphabetic character of the sound of h, did not in this case preserve it” (Narayanan 1996:14)."}} The [[Punjab region]], called [[Sapta Sindhu]] in the Vedas, is called ''Hapta Hindu'' in [[Zend Avesta]]. The 6th-century BCE inscription of Darius I mentions the province of ''Hi[n]dush'', referring to northwestern India.{{sfn|Sharmaa|2002|p=1-36}}{{sfn|Thapar|2003|p=38}}{{sfn|Jha|2009|p=15}} The people of India were referred to as ''Hinduvān'' and ''hindavī'' was used as the adjective for Indian language in the 8th century text ''[[Chachnama]]''.{{sfn|Jha|2009|p=15}} According to [[D. N. Jha]], the term 'Hindu' in these ancient records is an ethno-geographical term and did not refer to a religion.{{sfn|Jha|2009|p=16}}

{{multiple image
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The earliest known records of 'Hindu' with connotations of religion may be in the 7th-century CE Chinese text [[Great Tang Records on the Western Regions|''Records on the Western Regions'']] by the Buddhist scholar [[Xuanzang]]. Xuanzang uses the transliterated term ''In-tu'' whose "connotation overflows in the religious" according to [[Arvind Sharma]].{{sfn|Sharmaa|2002|p=3|ps=" The word Hindu derives, by common consent, from the word
Sindhu. It is remarkable that the direction of transformation of Sindhu – Hindu – Ind is paralleled in the account of the Buddhist pilgrim
Xanzuang (= Hiuen Tsang, 7th century), by the words Shin-tu-Hien-tau-Tien-chu, and even more surprising that it becomes In-tu, at which point its connotation overflows into the religious, at least in Xanzuang's interpretation of it (Beal 1969 [1884]:69)"}} While Xuanzang suggested that the term refers to the country named after the moon, another Buddhist scholar [[I-tsing]] contradicted the conclusion saying that ''In-tu'' was not a common name for the country.{{sfn|Jha|2009|p=14|ps="But the religious affiliation, if any, of these “holy men and sages” remains unknown, which hardly supports the view that Hsian Tsang used the word In-tu (Hindu) in a specifically religious sense: indeed, the later Chinese pilgrim I-tsing questioned the veracity of the statement that it was a common name for the country."}}

[[Al-Biruni]]'s 11th-century text ''Tarikh Al-Hind'', and the texts of the [[Delhi Sultanate]] period use the term 'Hindu', where it includes all non-Islamic people such as Buddhists, and retains the ambiguity of being "a region or a religion".{{sfn|Sharmaa|2002|p=1-36}}{{request quotation|date=June 2023}} The 'Hindu' community occurs as the amorphous 'Other' of the Muslim community in the court chronicles, according to the Indian historian [[Romila Thapar]].<ref name="Thapar tyranny">{{citation |last=Thapar |first=Romila |author-link=Romila Thapar |date=September–October 1996 |title=The Tyranny of Labels |journal=Social Scientist |volume=24 |pages=3–23 |number=9/10 |jstor=3520140 |doi=10.2307/3520140}}</ref> The comparative religion scholar [[Wilfred Cantwell Smith]] notes that the term 'Hindu' retained its geographical reference initially: 'Indian', 'indigenous, local', virtually 'native'. Slowly, the Indian groups themselves started using the term, differentiating themselves and their "traditional ways" from those of the invaders.{{sfn|Wilfred Cantwell Smith|1981|p=62}}

The text ''[[Prithviraj Raso]]'', by [[Chand Bardai]], about the 1192 CE defeat of [[Prithviraj Chauhan]] at the hands of [[Muhammad Ghori]], is full of references to "Hindus" and "Turks", and at one stage, says "both the religions have drawn their curved swords;" however, the date of this text is unclear and considered by most scholars to be more recent.{{sfn|Lorenzen|2006|p=33}} In Islamic literature, [[Isami (historian)|'Abd al-Malik Isami]]'s Persian work, ''Futuhu's-salatin'', composed in the [[Bahmani Sultanate|Deccan under Bahmani rule]] in 1350, uses the word ''{{'}}{{not a typo|hindi}}' '' to mean Indian in the ethno-geographical sense and the word ''{{'}}{{not a typo|hindu}}' '' to mean 'Hindu' in the sense of a follower of the Hindu religion".{{sfn|Lorenzen|2006|p=33}} The poet [[Vidyapati]]'s ''[[Kirtilata]]'' (1380) uses the term ''Hindu'' in the sense of a religion, it contrasts the cultures of Hindus and Turks (Muslims) in a city and concludes "The Hindus and the Turks live close together; Each makes fun of the other's religion (''dhamme'')"{{sfn|Lorenzen|2006|p=31}}<ref>{{cite book|title=Rethinking Religion in India: The Colonial Construction of Hinduism|editor=Esther Bloch|editor2=Marianne Keppens|editor3=Rajaram Hegde|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZrqLAgAAQBAJ&dq=India%27s+communities+kirtilata&pg=PA29|page=29|year=2009|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781135182793|quote=For his part, Vidyapati, in his Apabhransha text Kirtilata, makes use of the phrase 'Hindu and Turk dharmas' in a clearly religious sense and highlights the local conflicts between the two communities.|access-date=9 July 2023|archive-date=18 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230918024137/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZrqLAgAAQBAJ&dq=India%27s+communities+kirtilata&pg=PA29|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Felt Community|page=189|author=Rajat Kanta Ray|year=2003|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-565863-7|quote=The Kirtilata is said to have been composed in 1380.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3UxuAAAAMAAJ&q=Kirtilata+composed+in|access-date=9 July 2023|archive-date=18 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230918024135/https://books.google.com/books?id=3UxuAAAAMAAJ&q=Kirtilata+composed+in|url-status=live}}</ref> albeit [[Naqshbandi]] [[Sufism in India|Indian sufi]] inhabitations in [[Constantinople]] were often attributed as ''Hindular Tekkesi'' in [[Ottoman Turkish]].<ref> {{cite web |last=Chowdhury |first=Rishad |date=2014-02-27 |title="Hindis" in Istanbul: Field Notes on the Making of an Archival Subject |url=https://items.ssrc.org/from-our-fellows/hindis-in-istanbul-field-notes-on-the-making-of-an-archival-subject-2/ |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20250218062840/https://items.ssrc.org/from-our-fellows/hindis-in-istanbul-field-notes-on-the-making-of-an-archival-subject-2/ |archivedate=2025-02-18 |access-date=2025-02-22 |website=Items insight for social sciences |quote=Established soon after the fall of Byzantine Constantinople, the “Horhor” Sufi lodge was often refer to after the street on which it once stood. But usually, it was called the Indian tekke, that is, the ''Hindiler'' or ''Hindular Tekkesi'' in Ottoman Turkish.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
 | title       = HİNDULAR TEKKESİ ÇEŞMESİ - AKSARAY-FATİH-İSTANBUL
 | url         = https://www.turkiyenintarihieserleri.com/?oku=3345
 | date        = 2025-02-23
 | archiveurl  = https://archive.today/20250223140745/https://www.turkiyenintarihieserleri.com/?oku=3345
 | archivedate = 2025-02-23 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web
 | title       = Hindular Tekkesi - İstanbul Fatih Kıztaşı
 | url         = https://www.neredekal.com/hindular-tekkesi-gezilecek-yer-detay/
 | date        = 2025-02-24
 | archiveurl  = https://archive.today/20250224021412/https://www.neredekal.com/hindular-tekkesi-gezilecek-yer-detay/
 | archivedate = 2025-02-24 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web
 | title       = Indian Cultural Heritage in Turkey: Indians Lodge in Fatih, Istanbul
 | url         = https://www.booksonturkey.com/indian-cultural-heritage-in-turkey-indians-lodge-in-fatih-istanbul/
 | date        = 2025-02-24
 | archiveurl  = https://archive.today/20250224021752/https://www.booksonturkey.com/indian-cultural-heritage-in-turkey-indians-lodge-in-fatih-istanbul/
 | archivedate = 2025-02-24
 | quote       = XX. Ubeydullah es-Sindî Efendi, who was struggling to free India from British domination at the beginning of the century, resided in the Hindu Lodge when he took refuge in the Ottoman Empire. Riyâzeddin Babür Efendi, the last hider of the lodge, helped the Ottoman armies during the First World War when he was the sheikh of the Hindus Lodge in Jerusalem.  }}</ref>

One of the earliest uses of the word 'Hindu' in a religious context, in a European language ([[Spanish language|Spanish]]), was in a publication in 1649 by [[Sebastien Manrique|Sebastio Manrique]].{{sfn|Lorenzen|2006|p=15}} In Indian historian [[D. N. Jha|DN Jha]]'s essay ''"Looking for a Hindu identity"'', he writes: "No Indians described themselves as Hindus before the fourteenth century" and that "The British borrowed the word 'Hindu' from India, gave it a new meaning and significance, [and] reimported it into India as a reified phenomenon called Hinduism."<ref name="amp.scroll.in">{{Cite web|url=http://scroll.in/article/801580/a-short-note-on-the-short-history-of-hinduism|title=A short note on the short history of Hinduism|first=Mukul|last=Dube|website=Scroll.in|date=10 January 2016|access-date=9 July 2022|archive-date=28 November 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221128182331/https://scroll.in/article/801580/a-short-note-on-the-short-history-of-hinduism|url-status=live}}</ref> In the 18th century, the European merchants and colonists began to refer to the followers of Indian religions collectively as Hindus<ref name="amp.scroll.in" /> even though in the 19th century, this term was used for [[Afghans|Afghan]]-origin Muslim emperor [[Ibrahim Khan Lodi|Ibrahim Lodhi]] as ''Hindoo emperor'' in [[Encyclopedia Americana|Encyclopædia Americana (Lieber)]] of 1829.<ref>{{Cite book |last=LIEBER |first=FRANCIS LIEBER |title=Encyclopædia Americana (Lieber) Vol 1 |publisher=CAREY & LEA |year=1830 |location=Philadelphia |pages=506 |language=en|quote=After more than once recovering his fortunes, when they seemed to be almost desperate, he invaded Hindostan, and, in 1525, overthrew and killed sultan Ibrahim, the last Hindoo emperor of the Patan or Afghan race.}}</ref>

Other prominent mentions of 'Hindu' include the epigraphical inscriptions from kingdoms (in present-day [[Andhra Pradesh]]) which battled military expansion of Muslim rulers in the 14th century, where the word 'Hindu' partly implies a religious identity in contrast to 'Turks' or Islamic religious identity.{{sfn|Lorenzen|2006|pp=32–33}} The term ''Hindu'' was later used occasionally in some Sanskrit texts such as the later [[Rajatarangini]]s of Kashmir (Hinduka, {{Circa|1450}}) and some 16th- to 18th-century [[Bengali language|Bengali]] [[Gaudiya Vaishnavism|Gaudiya Vaishnava]] texts, including ''[[Chaitanya Charitamrita]]'' and ''[[Chaitanya Bhagavata]]''. These texts used it to contrast Hindus from Muslims who are called [[Yona#Later meanings|Yavanas]] (foreigners) or [[Mlecchas]] (barbarians), with the 16th-century ''Chaitanya Charitamrita'' text and the 17th-century ''Bhakta Mala'' text using the phrase "Hindu [[dharma]]".<ref name="OConnell1973" />